Beautiful Scars on Critical Veins
by abbzeh
Summary: Each of the seven dragon slayers has a defining flaw. / Manga spoilers
Author's note: Alright, so. I've been meaning to write another Fairy Tail fic ever since my last one, but things kept me from getting it done. Mostly fear that I'd ruin it. Also assignments. But mostly the fear. So I finally decided to write this – I'm really nervous about the characterisation and everything, so please let me know what you think?

There isn't a linear timeline to any of these. The timeline just moves as and when it's needed to, to be honest. Also, some little nods to ships, but nothing concrete.

Title comes from Kids in the Dark by All Time Low.

* * *

 _Wrath_

It's a well known fact around the guild – hell, around _all of Fiore_ – that Natsu can have a terrible temper at times. He knows it as well; it was something else that he and Igneel had both shared. He knows how destructive it can get if left to run its course, unchecked and without resistance.

The times that he's spent fighting Gray and Erza, or arguing with Gramps and other fellow guild mates – that isn't him losing his temper. Sure, he might shout and flail a lot and light a lot of things on fire, but in all honesty that's just for dramatic effect. At best, he feels a vague warmth in those times, a slight irritation and nothing more. Kind of like three Grays talking in his ears at once. In fact, it takes Natsu years to really lose his temper, to feel what Igneel had describe to him.

It happens on top of a giant Lacrima tower in the middle of the ocean, staring a blue haired man and listening to the cries of one of his friends. His body is hurting already from their fight before, and from fighting that owl power stealing douchbag downstairs, but Simon is lying dead between them and Jellal. And Erza is crying over his body, a most heart wrenching sound.

And Jellal, the bastard, is smirking.

Natsu isn't sure what snaps, exactly, but suddenly the blood in his veins turns to fire. His head starts to clear. There's something in his chest trying to claw its way out, snarling and snapping at him to _protect protect protect_ _ **KILL KILL KILL**_ and he can almost feel every sense change to adjust. His senses become sharper, and he can hear Jellal's stupid heartbeat, see the mirth in his eyes, smell the _exhilaration._

The dragon in him growls, and Natsu lets the dragon take over.

The next time he feels the dragon's wrath return, the guild is in Crocus for the Grand Magic Games.

He's staring at future!Lucy, lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, and he tries to comprehend what he's seeing. Logically, he knows Lucy is still alive. Lucy is right next to her. Slowly, Natsu tears his gaze away from her, to where future!Rogue is standing, looking annoyed with himself for missing her.

Missing her. Of course. He'd been aiming for Lucy. _His_ Lucy.

Everything inside him starts to burn wildly, itching to escape and burn Rogue to a pile of ashes. And then burn the ashes, just to be safe. The dragon inside snaps its jaws and claws at his chest, and Natsu can feel himself starting to shake from restraining the beast. Rogue, the one who took away Lucy's future, is still there.

Natsu snarls, lighting his fists on fire, vision clouding red. That just won't do at all.

 _ **Destroy him**_ , the dragon whispers.

Natsu's eyes darken. He will burn.

* * *

 _Pride_

Wendy wears her Fairy Tail guild mark and her dragon slayer title like badges of honour. Whenever she thinks of Grandine, she gets a warm feeling in her chest, and whenever she utilises her Sky Dragon attacks, she works to make sure that they're something her mother will be proud of.

She takes the utmost pride in being kind to others, though. The biggest example that comes to mind are those so-called scoundrels, the Butt-Jiggle Gang. Carla and the others hadn't understood at the time, only focusing on the mission at hand, and Wendy could understand that. Not everyone shared her need to be nice to everyone they met. Not everyone shared her will to fight for her family.

It's with that will that she finds herself sitting in Hargeon Port with Chelia, waiting on baited breath for whichever one of the Spriggan 12 to arrive. Every so often Wendy glances down at her arm and sees the Fairy Tail emblem there, as though it had never left, as though the past year had never happened. If she concentrates hard enough, she can almost feel everyone else through the bond that connects them – Natsu's anger, Lucy's determination, Erza's unbreakable spirit. Wendy finds herself smiling, despite the situation.

"Gonna share?" Chelia asks, nudging Wendy's shoulder with her own playfully. The fountain they're sat against digs into their shoulder blades roughly.

Wendy gives her a smile and a shrug. "I'm just really proud of everyone," she says, leaning against Chelia fully now. "Everyone's come so far."

Chelia laughs, the sound warming Wendy's heart. "And that's why we'll win," she says confidently. Then, a bit more quietly, "You should be proud of yourself as well." In her peripheral, Carla nods

And siting here, waiting for a battle to start, Wendy realises that Chelia's right. She thinks back over everything that's happened since she first met the Fairy Tail wizards, back when they were fighting the Oracion Seis. How Natsu had taught her to use attack spells, how Porlyusica had given her the book from Grandine; the despair and anger she'd felt as she'd fought Ezel, and somehow won.

She is proud of herself.

"You're right," she says instead, and Chelia grins, links their pinkies together and they sit in comfortable silence.

* * *

 _Lust_

One of the most annoying aspects that comes from being able to hear the thoughts of other people is hearing what they think of other people. Cobra had dealt with it briefly in the Oracion Seis with Angel, given her penchant to get thoughts in her head about every eligible bachelor from Sorcerer's Weekly. While listening to thoughts of ' _I wonder if he's really that tall_ ' and other such mindless drabble tend to drive him close to insane, at least Cubellios was there.

After the nice quiet time in prison – someone really needed to tell Doranbolt was a mess his head was, by the way. Someone who wasn't Cobra – and being thrown to Crime Sorciere with the rest of his old friends, things get a lot worse. Somehow, Angel's obsessing gets worse and, to Cobra's never-ending disgust, it tends to linger on the short man-monster thing that they'd encountered when trying to get Nirvana. What was his name? Ichi? Itchy? Ichiya – that's the one.

And then there is Jellal.

Jellal whose thoughts are of two things only: Titania, and fighting Zeref. Cobra is pretty sure that if he presented the opportunity to fight Zeref with Titania as his fighting companion, Jellal would name him best man for his wedding on the spot. The thought makes Cobra gag.

While it may surprise some people, Cobra only wants a few things out of life. The most obvious one, he wants to be reunited with Cubellios again, or whatever her name is in her human form. He can't forget the look in her eyes as they'd seen each other again, right before the rune knights had interfered, _again_. He wants to be stronger, as well, so that when he and Cubellios are reunited again, he can protect her properly.

Just thinking about what happened with Brain makes his blood boil.

Never again.

 _I wonder what Erza would do_.

Cobra's eye twitches, and he turns his head slowly to stare at Jellal. Jellal's got that blank look on his face again, the one that Angel – Solano, Cobra corrects himself – gets whenever she starts thinking about her Sorcerer's Weekly things.

What fucking idiots.

At least Meldy and Midnight have quiet minds. And minds not filled with this disgusting crap.

* * *

 _Greed_

In hindsight, Laxus knows that trying to take over the guild and blackmail his grandpa into giving him the title of guild master probably wasn't his greatest idea ever. To his guildmates – the ones who weren't in the Thunder Legion – he knows that it must have looked like sheer greed that drove him to those measures. Well, that or a bout of insanity.

Really, Laxus wants what's best for the guild. He loves the guild, and will fight for it until there's nothing left of him. Back when he'd attempted to take over, he'd been wanting to make the guild stronger, thinking that was what was best for it. Time has passed since then, and he knows that now. Now, he knows that it isn't strength that makes up the guild, but the hearts of the members, and he will fight to protect those members.

That's why he refuses to give up the fight, even now. Even when Wahl has the clear advantage, when Laxus' sickness is so agonisingly on the edge.

He wants it all, wants the lives of the ones he loves the most to be saved and their future to be a good one. When he fights Tempest, with his comrades lying around him in various states of injury, he desperately wants more power to protect them, to _beat the one that did that to them._ He refuses to give up, to lose to the same foe twice. That's the Fairy Tail way, after all, and if Laxus is anything at all, he's as stubborn as a dragon with a bad temper. He'd heard his grandpa say it enough to know it to be true.

This is why he wants to be as strong as he possibly can be.

There's no way he's letting any of the losers he calls friends die on him. Not on his watch.

* * *

 _Sloth_

Sting is great, he really is. Rogue is thankful that Sting's light is always there, always a guide so that he doesn't get too lost in the darkness. Sometimes, though, Rogue finds himself unable to keep up with Sting's overly… energetic nature, and it's times like those that he finds himself taking to the comfort of the darkened corners of Sabertooth's archives, or wandering down to the lake and sitting beneath a shaded tree, Frosch on his knee.

"It's peaceful out here," he says quietly, looking out at the lake. They'd walked down to the lake again today, deftly avoiding Sting and Lector by sheer luck.

"Fro thinks so too," Frosch replies happily, leaning back against Rogue's chest, and Rogue tightens his arm around her slightly, smiling.

Sting understands that he has days like this, that he needs to be alone for a bit. It gets tiring, socialising all the time with a guild as big as theirs. It's not as bad when it's just him and Sting talking one-on-one. Rogue feels as though he can let his guard down completely around Sting; after all, Sting has had his back for so long, Rogue doesn't know any different now. Even that, though, eventually wears him out, and he has to retreat to recuperate.

So he lies back against the tree, closes his eyes, and says, "Hey, Frosch?"

"Ro?"

"You wanna have a nap for a bit?"

Instead of replying, Frosch just curls up against him. Rogue smiles again, lets himself drift off and enter a state of blissful calmness, one before his lethargy takes hold completely. He knows that Sting will probably come down here to wake him up in a few hours, or if it's not Sting then it'll be Minerva, worrying about him again when she really doesn't have to.

For now, though, Rogue doesn't worry about any of that. That's for his future self to deal with. Right now, he's warm and happy.

* * *

 _Envy_

Having grown up on a steady diet of stories about the great Natsu Dragneel, the Salamander of Fairy Tail, Sting had made it his life's mission to beat him one day. After all, isn't that what you do when you admire someone? Aspire to overcome whatever they could not? He'd trained non-stop for years, grown disheartened when Fiore had learned of the tragedy of Tenrou Island and Acnologia – because how could he ever prove he had surpassed Natsu if Natsu was gone? – and had hope returned when that group had returned seven years later.

Meeting his idol, though, is nothing like he'd imagined. And fighting him is certainly nothing like his dreams at all.

Sting isn't sure what he'd been expecting when they fight – okay, Rogue and Gajeel are there as well, but all he's focused on is himself and Natsu – maybe their power level to be more equally matched? Instead, Natsu sends Gajeel off fuck knows where in the middle of the goddamn fight and takes both Sting and Rogue out on his own, without even needing to go into Dragon Force. The feeling of the raw power radiating off his idol is enough to make Sting breathless. Not that he'd ever show it.

He watches Natsu head back to his friends, power still radiating off him, and something twists inside his chest. Sting watches all the guild members interact, how they hug each other and laugh and cheer for their victories. He can't recall Sabertooth ever doing anything like that for any of their victories, in all of the years that they've been competing in the Grand Magic Games.

It's not until he thinks back to the night that Natsu had stormed into their midst in a fit of rage, fully prepared to take them all on, after Jiemma's harsh treatment of Yukino. How disgusted he was with how the guild members treated one another, especially the master himself, as though he had never encountered a legal guild like that before. If Minerva hadn't stopped him, Sting is willing to bet that Natsu would have destroyed them all just for that alone.

The feeling he feels in his chest, the weird tight feeling when he looks at their stupid celebratory hugs.

He wants that as well.

Sure, Sting also wants the power that Natsu has, and seems to have in spades because _what the hell he stopped my attack with his bare hand_ , but more than anything else he wants to have the familial feel that Fairy Tail has, that Sabertooth lacks. Obviously, he's not going to leave his guild. He's invested far too much of his life and heart in it to leave now – and he's got money on Rufus and Orga realising that they actually don't hate each other and he intends to see that bet through to the end – but he wants to change things.

After the Grand Magic Games, after the spectacle that was the Dragon King Festival, Sting takes over as the guild master because Jiemma isn't fit to run a fucking guild. Even though there's a fuck load of paperwork involved that comes with being guild master, he finally has the chance to change things.

Some of the pressure eases.

* * *

 _Gluttony_

"Gajeel."

"Mhm."

"Why am I being used as a leaning post, _again_?" Levy asks. She looks less than impressed as she manages to shrug Gajeel's arms off her head and turn around to face him.

Gajeel grins at her. "You're the perfect height, shrimp. Gihihi," he cackles, taking delight in how her face goes red at the nickname. She looks as though she's about to respond, but the she-devil at the bar shouting cuts her off before she can get a word in.

"Has anyone seen all the cutlery?" Mira asks, frowning as she looks around. She turns her attention to Salamander and the flying blue cat. "Natsu?"

Salamander looks offended. "What would I want forks for? Ask metal head over there." Without turning around, he points in Gajeel's direction, and Mira's eyes snap towards him and Levy.

"Do you know where it all went?" she asks, smiling hopefully.

Gajeel stares at her. "Not a clue," he replies, pulling a fork out of his snack bag – he'd decided some time ago that since Salamander can apparently order fire at the bar and the little girl has a constant supply of her element anyway, he'd need a snack bag for his iron – and chewing on the prongs. Mira stares at the action.

"You're eating a fork," she says slowly, no longer sounding so happy.

"Your point being?" Gajeel replies, sill eating the fork like nothing is wrong with it. The little girl, Salamander and Sparky are watching him now. He mentally snorts. Of course they are. Damn Slayer code.

"All the cutlery in the guild hall is missing," Mira says, sounding like she's speaking through gritted teeth. Or like she's trying to keep her temper in check. Gajeel smirks.

"And I'm hungry. Funny how that works." He finishes off the fork and fishes out a spoon, bites into it still smirking. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Levy looking somewhere between amused and resigned.

"You can't eat all the silverware! We actually have to buy that!" Mira protests loudly. She narrows her eyes at the sight of another spoon being eaten. Gajeel gives her the _look_ , the look that says that he isn't going to listen to her, whatever she says, and she gives a resigned sigh. Gajeel snorts. She's sounding more like the master each day. "Master is going to be so upset about this," she says quietly. Gajeel probably isn't meant to hear that, but whatever.

He pulls a piece of scrap iron out of his snack bag next, slightly serrated at the edges, and he begins eating it immediately. Levy gives him a look.

"What?" he asks, mouth full of metal.

"Maybe you should – erm – slow down?" she says. It comes out like a question though, and she turns a bit red when Gajeel snorts.

"Don't worry, shrimp," he says, resting one forearm on Levy's head and ignoring her protests about being used as a leaning post again. "I won't get indigestion and I won't get fat from this." A beat, then, "I'm pretty sure they don't do diet metal anyway."

* * *

Author's note: So, how was this? Good? Bad? Something truly terrible? I've been wanting to write something with the slayers and the seven sins since I did a rewatch of the Seven Deadly Sins. Also, the way I wrote Sting is how I imagine he really is, because that's what his funimation dub VA is like. I'll stop rambling. Please let me know if this was any good or not.


End file.
